In the last post, I alluded to using Microsoft Office. For years, that has been the primary software suite for word processing, spreadsheets and databases, etc.
As a higher education administrator, Word, Excel, and Power Point were essential tools for my work. At home, I have no need for Power Point, but do use Access for management of various things, especially mailing address lists for easy production of mailing labels.
The only other Microsoft tool I use somewhat infrequently is Notepad. I have never used OneNote or other office tools, and probably never will now that I’m retired.
In the “office” grouping, I recently installed LibreOffice primarily to re-learn it so I can help my daughter, who is in early stages of developing her blog. She does not want to invest in Microsoft Office, so this was the best option. I also am looking ahead to the day when I abandon Office because I simply do not want to buy into Office 365.
Several years ago, I used OpenOffice quite a bit on my laptop because I did not want to buy a second copy of Office. It worked well for me than, so I anticipate Write and Calc (the equivalents for Word and Excel) will be quite adequate for our current purposes. One very nice feature is to save files in Word and Excel formats so they can be easily transferred to Office when necessary. The other components are less portable. Most disappointing is the Base Database being so different from Access, that whenever I give up on Office, I’ll have to rebuild the databases from scratch.
Even though browsers now have PDF reader capability, we use Adobe Reader DC on the desktop. Since I’m trying to not load the laptop with too much software, I use a browser for viewing PDFs.
One other very useful program for PDF is PDFsam 3. The “sam” stands for split, add, merge. The free version works fine for me, so I have resisted buying any pro versions. The times I use it most are when scanning lengthy documents printed on both sides of the paper. The merge function makes it easy to create a single PDF document out of two scans.
For many years, I have used Quicken to keep track of bank accounts and credit card purchases. The latest version I have used is 2015, but earlier this year they discontinued support for it and I can no longer download data from banks. My practice had been to upgrade only when my older version was no longer supported. This year, I’ve managed alright without it, but checking manually is more complicated and tedious, so I decided to breakdown and buy the Quicken 2019 license, knowing I will be investing in a new version now every year.
One final productivity program I have come to like and use daily, is Wunderlist. It is a to-do list app, I use in both PC and Android versions so works very well for keeping grocery lists that can be created or added to on any device. I then use my cellphone when shopping to check things off the list as I put them in the cart. Obviously, it can be used for all kinds of lists. One feature I like, is lists can be shared with other users, so my wife and I can work from the same shopping list. This is one of the rare exceptions of my use of the cloud technology. Privacy and security are not such a big deal for grocery lists. 😊
As I did with email, I’ll mention some of the older programs I’ve used in the past. One college I worked for used the Novell networking system and we all used Corel software – Word Perfect, Quattro Pro, Presentation. I liked them all just fine, but had to change to Microsoft at the next college, so they have gone by the wayside.
Before that I was an Apple IIe user exclusively, so AppleWorks (later ClarisWorks) – word processor, spreadsheet, database was what I used at home. The earliest word processor I remember, but not likely the first one I used, was Word Juggler. I also was an early user of Visicalc. I remember the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3, but do not recall ever using it. As I recall back in the 1980’s dBase was the program most DOS based computers used, but I never had one of those at that time.
Tech Muddler 